The present invention relates to a medium handling apparatus for issuing a ticket of the type used to identify a person entitled to board a plane, ship or train. More particularly, it relates to a medium handling apparatus having a hopper assembly which includes a hopper for accommodating therein a continuous elongated ticket sheet folded along lines of perforations.
Referring to FIG. 7, there is shown a prior art medium handling apparatus 100 having first and second hoppers 110a and 110b. Each of these hoppers accommodates therein a continuous medium which may for example be a continuous elongated ticket sheet 200 consisting of a plurality of tickets 210 connected to each other by lines of perforations 220 (FIG. 8). Ticket sheet 200 is folded along the lines of perforations 220 and stored in hoppers 110a and 110b. The ticket sheet 200 stored in hopper 110a is drawn out of this hopper and, guided by feed guide 120a, inserted between feed rollers 130a. The ticket sheet 200 stored in hopper 110b is drawn out of this hopper and, guided by feed guide 120b, inserted between feed rollers 130b.
When the apparatus 100 issues a ticket 210, a ticket sheet 200 is conveyed from a selected one of the hoppers 110a or 110b to a cutting roller 150 by either feed rollers 130a or 130b depending upon whether hopper 110a or 110b has been selected. The cutting roller 150 cuts the perforation 220 of the ticket sheet 200 after the leading edge of the ticket sheet is detected by either sensor 140a or 140b, again depending upon whether hopper 110a or 110b has been selected, thereby separating the leading ticket from the ticket sheet 200.
The separated ticket 210 is then conveyed to a magnetic processing unit 160 by feed rollers 130c and data describing the ticket, which was previously stored in a magnetic stripe (not shown) of the ticket sheet 200, is read out by a magnetic reading head 161 of the magnetic processing unit 160. Next, data relating to the type of ticket to be issued is written into the magnetic stripe by a magnetic writing head 162 and the ticket 210 is convoyed to a printing unit 170. Additional information is printed on the ticket 210 by a thermal head 171 of the printing part 170 and the ticket 210 discharged to a stacker 180.
FIG. 8 illustrates an example of a prior art hopper assembly consisting of a hopper 110a, a feed guide 120a and feed rollers 130a for use in the medium handling apparatus of FIG. 7. The hopper assembly consisting of hopper 110a, feed guide 120a and feed rollers 130a has arbitrarily been selected for description although the hopper assembly consisting of hopper 130b, feed guide 120b and feed rollers 130b could have been used in this example.
In use, the top and one side of the hopper 110a are opened by an operator and a ticket sheet 200 placed in the hopper. The leading edge of the ticket sheet is fed by the operator over the feed guide 120a and between feed rollers 130a. When instructions to issue a ticket 210 are input to the apparatus 100, the leading edge of the ticket sheet 200 is conveyed toward the cutting roller 150 by the feed rollers 130a.
Another example of a prior art hopper is shown in FIG. 9, again with reference to hopper 110a although the following description would also apply to hopper 110b. This type of hopper is used when there is a limited amount of space above the hopper due to a need to minimize the size of the apparatus 100. In this embodiment, a cover 111 having a position restraint portion 112 is provided over the hopper 110a The position restraint portion 112 slopes upward toward a feed opening 113 and functions to restrain the ticket sheet 200 from floating out of the hopper 110a. In use, one of the four sides of the hopper 110a is opened by the operator and the ticket sheet 200 installed in the hopper from the opened side.
In the initial operation of the hopper assembly of FIG. 9, the leading edge of the ticket sheet is fed over the feed guide 120a and between feed rollers 130a in the direction of the arrow A. When the leading edge of the ticket sheet 200 reaches the sensor 140a, the sensor generates a signal which causes the feed rollers 130a to continue to rotate for a predetermined period of time resulting in the leading edge of the ticket sheet reaching the point B downstream from the sensor 140a Rotation of the feed rollers 130a is then stopped. Next, the feed rollers 130a are driven in reverse for another predetermined period of time which conveys the leading edge of the ticket sheet 200 from the location B through the distance L to a location C between the feed rollers 130a and the sensor 140a. A similar arrangement is used in the prior art hopper assembly shown in FIG. 8 although it is not shown in FIG. 8.
The described feed arrangement is necessary regardless of whether the prior art hopper of FIG. 8 or FIG. 9 is used because the apparatus 100 shown in FIG. 7 selects one of the two hoppers 110a and 110b according to the kind of ticket selected. Therefore, when the hopper from which the ticket sheet is taken is switched to the other hopper, the leading edge of the ticket sheet 200 located at the cutting roller 150 after the ticket 210 has been issued must be returned to the location C between the feed rollers and the sensor. When instructions to issue a ticket 210 are input to the apparatus 100, the leading edge of the ticket sheet 200 is conveyed toward the cutting roller 150 by the feed rollers 130a.
A problem encountered with the prior art apparatus, whether the hopper of FIG. 8 or FIG. 9 is used, is that a feed jam may occur if folded tickets 210 of ticket sheet 200 are drawn out of the hopper when they are clinging to each other by the properties of the ink used for printing the tickets and/or by the presence of static electricity.
Another problem, which is peculiar to the prior art hopper of FIG. 9, is that when the ticket sheet 200 is conveyed in the reverse direction, that is, in the direction opposed to the direction of arrow A, the ticket sheet 200 collides with the position restraint portion 112 of the cover 111 and is pressed hard against it. As a result, the ticket sheet 200 is sometimes improperly cut along a line of perforations 220.